INS Visakhapatnam, INS Deepak reach Bahrain for joint naval exercise

INS Visakhapatnam and INS Deepak on Monday reached Bahrain, Iran, for professional interactions with the Royal Bahrain Naval Force (RBNF). These professional interactions will be conducted in several domains including maritime operations, and joint exercises. This aims at enhancing best practices aimed at enhancing cooperation and strengthening ties between both navies.

India-Iran relations span millennia marked by meaningful interactions. India and Iran established diplomatic ties on March 15, 1950. In addition to the embassy in Tehran, India has two consulates in the country. One is in Bandar Abbas and the other in Zahedan according to the External affairs ministry.

Indian Navy professional interactions with Iran and docking of INS Trikand

Indian Naval Ship (INS) Trikand received a warm welcome upon its arrival at Bandar Abbas, the port city of Iran on Sunday. The Indian Naval ship is on a visit to Iran as part of the Indian Navy’s operational deployment towards cooperative maritime engagement with regional countries, as per a report by ANI. The Indian Navy on its Twitter handle said that INS Trikand is on a visit to Bandar Abbas, Iran as part of its operational deployment towards cooperative, maritime engagement with regional countries and the ship received a warm welcome from the commander 1st district, IRIN.

These interactions will include joint operations and participation of two Indian ships INS Visakhapatnam and INS Deepak during the interactions. INS Visakhapatnam is the first of the Visakhapatnam class stealth-guided missile destroyers of the Indian Navy. The ship was commissioned on 21st November 2021, and the keel of the Vishakapatnam was laid on 12th October 2013 and was launched on 20th April 2015 at Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai.

#INSVisakhapatnam & #INSDeepak in #Bahrain

Earlier during port call professional interactions with Royal Bahrain Naval Force (RBNF) in various domains of #maritime ops, and best practices shared, aimed at enhancing #cooperation & strengthening ties between the two navies
🇮🇳-🇧🇭🤝 pic.twitter.com/mqKaRzRnSA

— SpokespersonNavy (@indiannavy) August 21, 2023

INS Deepak is a Deepak class fleet tanker built by Fincantieri. It was launched on 13th February 2010. It can carry 17,900 tonnes of cargo including 15,500 tonnes of Liquid cargo and 500 tonnes of solid cargo. It can carry 16 cargo containers on the upper deck and is equipped with an eight-bed hospital, with laboratory and X-Ray facilities. The modern cargo handling facility on board the ship enables the transfer of heavy solid cargo via a 30 tonnes capacity deck crane and simultaneous fueling of multiple ships at sea and can refuel 1500 tonnes per hour.

The professional interactions will deepen bilateral, diplomatic and military relations between both countries as PM Modi has a telephonic conversation with Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and discussed bilateral and military ties. The two leaders reiterated their commitment to realizing the full potential of Chabahar Port as a connectivity hub. Both leaders also discussed cooperation at multilateral forums including the expansion of BRICS and looked forward to their meeting on the margins of the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa from August 22-24 and also future joint ops between both nations.